Out of Office #15 ‘EU copyright reform: where are we now?’
Just over a year ago the European Commission proposed the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive) to reform copyright in the European Union. It is about time that the European copyright landscape is improved and adapted to the 21st century, since the last Directive concerning copyright originates from 2001. We hope this Out of Office will help us towards a better understanding of what happened over the last year and what needs to happen in the time to come to exploit the legislative opportunity.
17:00 - 19:00
- Betrokken KL'ers
- Paul Keller
- Judith Blijden
- Maarten Zeinstra
We are happy to invite you to the 15th edition of Out of Office on 8 December 2017 from 17:00 to 19:00 at Spring House. During this Out of Office we will reflect with Ms Julia Reda, Member of the European Parliament, on the recent developments concerning the ongoing copyright reform in Europe. Come and join us in search of new insights, encounters and inspiration, while enjoying music, drinks and snacks!
Julia Reda is Member of the European Parliament for the Greens/EFA group and a co-founder for the Parliament’s current Digital Agenda intergroup. She is an advocate for a free Europe with open borders, open communication structures and the relaxation and harmonisation of copyright laws. Reda will share her thoughts on the ongoing copyright reform and whether progress has been made since the DSM Directive (more info below) was proposed by the European Commission.
Representatives of different sectors, among which Rita Zipora, a Dutch singer-songwriter, are invited to respond to her exposition to further examine the different perspectives we see in the copyright reform debate. As always, we will close the evening in good company, with good fingerfood and some jazz music.
Just over a year ago the European Commission proposed the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive) to reform copyright in the European Union++The proposalRead more about what we think of the proposal here.. It is about time that the European copyright landscape is improved and adapted to the 21st centuryShould online platforms (automatically) filter out copyright-protected content?, since the last Directive concerning copyright originates from 2001, from a time before Facebook, iPhones, YouTube, Instagram, etc. Besides creating new opportunities, technological developments have also generated a legal void on various issues++RegulationWe have argued that regulation is needed for content filtering although not in the way the Commission has proposed.
. The proposed Directive is an opportunity to modernise the copyright framework in Europe. We currently expect the European Parliament to vote on the Directive at the beginning of 2018.
The debate around the controversial DSM Proposal
While there is a general consent that a copyright reform to solve these issues is long overdue, there is a lot of contention towards the different solutions in the proposal. Most notably on article 13++Article 13As a member of COMMUNIA, Kennisland was co-writer of this position paper on article 13. which suggests that online platforms should (automatically) filter out copyright-protected content. This could mean that a meme which includes a copyright-protected image aiming to critique a political figure could be automatically removed even when this meme would fall under the protection of freedom of expression. Academics throughout Europe have put out a joint statement saying that article 13 is incompatible with the fundamental rights and freedoms such as freedom of expressionArticle 13 is incompatible with the fundamental rights and freedoms such as freedom of expression., freedom to conduct a business and the protection of personal data.
Kennisland together with multiple other partners has launched a campaign called Create Refresh to generate attention to this article. Watch the video here:
The debate around the DSM Directive proposal resolves not only on the content of the proposal, but also on what the Commission has missed to include at all.The debate around the DSM Directive proposal resolves not only on the content of the proposal, but also on what the Commission has missed to include at all. The Internet has enabled users to easily transform (copyright-protected) content into new creations and share these creations online, such as memes, lipdubs and remix videos. Some hoped that these kind of creations would be regulated and legalised by a user-generated content exception. The proposal did not include such an exception. We hope this Out of Office will help us towards a better understanding of what happened over the last year and what needs to happen in the time to come to exploit the legislative opportunity.
RSVP
Attention please: There is a limited number of seats, so please sign up here no later than December 6th.
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- Betrokken KL'ers
- Paul Keller pk@kl.nl
- Judith Blijden jb@kl.nl
- Maarten Zeinstra mz@kl.nl
